The Mark Beamon series of novels is written by author Kyle Mills from America. The series deals with the thriller genre and consists of five novels published from 1997 to 2007. It features Mark Beamon as the main protagonist, who works as a Special Agent in the FBI. Mark is known for his maverick ways of handling the cases because of which he is often criticized by his commanding officers. The series deals with the drug prevalent in America and the attempts of the officials like Mark Beamon and Laura Vilechi to curb its harmful effects on the life of the American citizens. Author Kyle Mills began writing the series and published the first novel titled ‘Rising Phoenix’ in the year 1997 with the help of HarperCollins publishers. The plot of the first novel starts with the outbreak of a deadly plague in the American cities in the form of drug poisoning. All the hospitals and emergency wards get filled with sick patients as chaos spreads everywhere. The streets of the American cities see people lying everywhere unconscious due to the poisonous drug abuse. The police officials come to know that a criminal has poisoned the drug supply all over the American continent. He had also poisoned the ones that are approved by the majority of the Americans. The situation worsens further with more and more people dying every minute.

FBI Agent Mark Beamon, who was previously exiled by the organization gets summoned back to the capital city and is handed over the responsibility of finding the criminal behind the mass murders. He has to find the person who had given the advertisement in the newspaper all over the country asking the drug addicts to either quit or die. He is teamed up with the female agent, Laura Vilechi. Banking on his intuition and analytical characteristics, he begins the manhunt desperately and strives to catch the most popular mass murderer in the history of America. Along with the desperate attempts of stopping the drug cartels, Laura and Beamon also have the important task of stopping the violence on the streets of the country as the poisonous effects of the drug abuse continue to take the lives of many people. Agent Laura Vilechi thinks of looking for the culprit throughout the all the three continents, by spreading their net wide enough for the culprit to get caught. However, Agent Beamon does not have a similar opinion. He thinks that the person responsible for the mass murders lies close to them in their own vicinity. He finds the case similar to his own previous adversary in which he had come across a familiar ruthless killer, in the form of one of his old friends from the agency working as an undercover agent. The previous encounter with a familiar killer forces Beamon to have a suspicion on the U.S. government. He starts believing that the government had started the operation to finish the drug stigma and taken such a harsh step to do it. Whether his suspicion turns into reality or there is someone else who is the real culprit? This question keeps him bugging throughout the novel.

The second novel of the series was released in the year 1998 by the Harper Paperbacks publishing house. It was titled ‘Storming Heaven’ and featured the same character, FBI Agent Mark Beamon. In this novel too, Beamon continues with his maverick ways of working, as the department becomes fed up with his ways of functioning. However, the bureau decides to give him one more chance to correct his mistakes and do something that they can be proud of. He is sent to run a Southwest office and is strictly ordered to do the things the way FBI wants him to do. He finds the office to be a sleepy one and does feel any enthusiasm in doing the job. He is of the opinion that the criminals do not make use of the ways of the FBI to commit crimes an that he is right in adopting his own means of dealing with the criminals. Soon, a case comes to him when a millionaire and his wife get murdered brutally in the Flagship town of Arizona. The people of Arizona become shocked by the murder of the millionaire as he was one of the prominent personalities of the country. The crime takes place as a robbery and subsequent kidnapping of the daughter of the couple named Jennifer. Agent Beamon finds the crime to be one of the deadliest, clumsiest and bloodiest of all crimes and had never encountered anything like this in his entire career. Although the millionaire’s daughter, Jennifer Davis seems to have been abducted, Beamon finds her to be the prime suspect of the crime and believes that she and her boyfriend might have committed the crime and faked her abduction. He feels that something about the case is not right and with the help of his new assistant, he begins to search for Jennifer.

Mark Beamon follows faint clues that lead him to the labyrinthine headquarters from a cabin in the Utah mountains. He reaches the boardroom of an advanced communication empire having a shadowy feel. The department once again becomes furious with Beamon’s way of working as he failed to follow the guidelines of the department once again. His investigations about the Church of the Evolution and some reputed communication companies like Tarrosoft and Vericomm lands him under great pressure from the higher officials of the department. Right then, an interesting twist occurs in the case when Agent Beamon finds out that Jennifer’s parents had committed a double suicide. But the reason was not clear as to why they had taken such a nasty step. Beamon was not able to find out the benefit that they got from the suicide and becomes desperate after finding out that America’s integrity is at stake. With the time running out, he is required to act quickly in order to save his career at Jennifer’s life. The readers found the novel to be intriguing and this helped author Kyle Mills with the back to back success of his novels. He had characterized Mark Beamon in an unorthodox but effective way. The fascinating plot and high-packed thrill of the novel was appreciated by the readers all over the world. Author Mills received a lot motivation from the success of his initial novels and went on to write a few more novels in the series, which were also successful as the initial ones.

Master of the standalone thriller genre, Shari Lapena, is back. Author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest is the latest novel by Shari. It takes place in a cozy mountain lodge in Winter where various people are staying for a romantic getaway. A blizzard cuts off the power and any contact with the outside world so everyone settles in for the long haul. Then a guest dies. And another. Knowing Shari's other books, this should be one we'll be reading late into the night. For more details or to pre-order, visit our Shari Lapena page.

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Featured Series

Our book series of the month is the Will Robie Series by David Baldacci. If you like Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne etc then you'll love the Will Robie series. These are page turners to the max too and Baldacci knows how to keep you going all night long!

Featured Author

Bill Wenham is the author of various book series including The Inspector Charrington Mysteries and the Inspector Bruce Mysteries. He just started writing in his 80s to follow a life long dream. It’s an amazing story and the books he has written are pretty great too – his passion really shines through. Read more about Bills books.

Did You Know…

David Baldacci had been writing stories since he was a kid. He wrote many short stories for over 20 years while having a law career. He spent 3 years of his law career writing the novel Absolute Power which would become a best seller and a movie starring Clint Eastwood.